Titanic Memorial Lighthouse Campaign
DONOR UPDATE
After a 4 year campaign we're thrilled to announce Titanic Memorial Lighthouse will, at last, be restored!
We continue to fight for:
- Titanic descendants included in restoration planning, like the 9/11 Memorial process.
- All 1,496 victim's names recorded on the Memorial, and a rededication service.
- Adding TML to the National Register of Historic Places, then a National Landmark.
- Relocate lighthouse to former riverside location as history and function demand.
- Raise a new tower as a Beacon of Hope on Pier 16.
The Seaport Museum has posted a Request for Proposals for ‘Architectural and Engineering Services for the Lighthouse Enclosures’.
This is the beginning of the restoration journey, but we are one step closer to raising the new tower as a Beacon of Hope at its former riverside location.
In a unanimous 46-0 vote, Community Board 1 approved an immediate in-situ restoration of Titanic Memorial Lighthouse.
Individual donors, benefactors and corporate sponsors are invited to join our campaign.
We look forward to sharing more news with you on this page.
MISSION & VISION
• Restore TML to its 100% original working condition
• Record and remember the 1,496 victims of the tragedy
• Recognize a National Historic Landmark
• Create a top-10 NYC tourist attraction
• Financially assist the Seaport Museum
• Create a ‘Beacon of Hope’ for youth, immigrants & visitors alike
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
Titanic Memorial Lighthouse was the world's first monument erected to the victims, unveiled exactly one year after the tragedy.
Designed by Warren & Wetmore—architects of Grand Central Terminal—its Flemish style in tribute to the Dutch port of New Amsterdam, the lighthouse comprised a stonework pedestal and lantern, topped with a domed copper roof. A small door at the base of its rear opened to internal stairs rising to the lantern which shone through three rows of rectangular windows.
An external viewing gallery with railings cantilevered out from the sides of the pedestal. A pole extended up from a cylindrical cupola which held the 'time-ball.'
This time ball dropped daily at noon for captains to set their ship’s chronometers allowing for safe and accurate navigation. In a pre-quartz, pre-digital era, it’s how New Yorkers kept time!
The lighthouse stood atop the roof of the new 12-storey Seamen's Church Institute at 25 South Street from 1913-1968 as an active lighthouse for the Port of the City of New York.
RESTORATION
In 1969 the SCI building was demolished and the light-tower gifted to the South Street Seaport Museum. It currently resides in the Historic Seaport District in urgent need of restoration.
SUPPORTERS
Though lighthouses are by design ‘land marks’ the Titanic Lighthouse is not listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In this, support comes from Congressman Jerrold Nadler, State Senator Brian Kavanagh, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, and District 1 (Seaport) Councillor Margaret Chin.
USE OF PROCEEDS
Your gifts (less GoFundMe fees and campaign costs) will support the restoration of Titanic Memorial Lighthouse to its 100% original condition. All donors become part of this historic restoration project and are so recorded in the Honor Roll.
ABOUT US
Friends of Titanic Lighthouse Restoration (FOTLR ) are a nonprofit group dedicated to saving the world's first Titanic memorial. Its supporters are descendants of passengers and crew aboard the Titanic including our Honorary Chair, Helen Benziger, great-granddaughter of the 'Unsinkable’ Margaret Tobin Brown.
With its restored 1913 features, the ‘time ball’ will be the only working one in the US; its green lantern will be the only working lighthouse in Manhattan; the names of the passengers and crew who perished will at last be recorded.
Please join us in saving this important national maritime landmark.
Thank you.
(Legal Notice: Gifts are not currently tax deductible as FOTLR is not a 501(c)3 charity organization).
LINKS & CREDITS
Memorial 3D rendering courtesy Vasilije Ristović.
© 2022 Friends of Titanic Lighthouse Restoration. PO Box 62, New York, NY 10272.
